On Saturday, we threw a Cinco de Mayo party at our house. The original intent was for it to be a bbq and have everyone hang out outside. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day so being outside just wasn't possible. We still BBQed carne and pollo asada but had everything else inside. We had about 20-25 people plus some little ones so the house was pretty packed. We had a mixed group of playgroup friends, off-roading friends, and work friends. Everyone seemed to have a good time!

Kayla is doing great. It turned out that all four molars initially swelled together but look like they'll be popping through one by one. She is drooling constantly and she definitely gets more fussy with increased drool and chewing but I *think* the teething seems to have gotten a little easier for her. Possibly because there are more things to distract her from it?

It seems like overnight she went from seeming sooo much like a baby to looking and acting like a little girl. She walks now without needing her arms in the air for balance (which I miss because it was soooo cute). For the first time on Saturday, she was able to push herself up from crawling to standing without using something to pull herself up. She is definitely walking more often than crawling these days. Over the weekend we had her follow us around a store and she just keep squealing - I think she got a big kick out of being able to walk around with us. She mimicking a lot and wants to know how things work. This of course also includes wanting to do things on her own. There are still meals where I can feed her but for the most part, she wants to use the spoon to feed herself.. although it always leaves me wondering how much food is getting INTO her body. She has gotten connected to a doll that grandma gini and grandpa mike gave her for her birthday. She wants her when she goes to bed and when she gets up. When she gets up, she picks up dolly before she gets out of the crib and then instantly wants to go say hi to the dogs. She is still a very picky eater but I've tried to relax a bit and just keep trying new things now and then. The quantity she eats really seems to be connected with how she is feeling so if she has a cold I can now expect (and not worry as much) that she isn't going to eat as much while her nose is running. She is still around 19lbs but we are sure she has recently had a growing spurt because she is reaching things she couldn't reach before and she looks and feels longer (yes we could measure her but she has an appointment next month). Sleeping is going so well that I sometimes can't believe this child used to have problems sleeping. She goes to sleep between 7:30 and 8pm and wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30 (we love when it is 7:30). Many times in the morning, she will sit and play in her crib before she calls for us to get her. Her "normal" nap routine is 30-45 minutes between 10 and 11 and then 60-90 minutes between 2 and 4. Some days she doesn't go down for the morning nap so we know that one will be gone soon.

The most exciting thing going on right now with her besides the walking is her communicating. It is really had to say whether she has said her first "word" but she always uses the same sound to indicate the dogs and another sound to indicate her dolly. The sounds are similar to "doggie" and "dolly" but I don't know if anyone would recognize that who isn't around her all the time. She uses da-da for some many things that we don't think it means Jose anymore. It is sometimes Jose, sometimes me, and she sometimes uses it when she is just pissed. It sounds like she says yes, or yeah in the appropriate context sometimes but that was is too soon to call. Where the communication has explodes is with signing. Some of her signs are real sign language signs, some are "baby signs" and some are ones we've made up on her own. But, this is her current signing vocabulary: more, all-done, eat, drink, dog, nap/night-night, baby, ball, bath, light. She also likes to do hand motions to twinkle twinkle. What is funny is when she wants something that she doesn't know how to sign because she ends up going through her whole vocabulary :) It seems like she really likes using the dog and baby signs because she just seems so proud of herself when she does it. I have not been good about getting this stuff on tap but I'll hopefully post a video montage soon. I haven't really been posting albums lately so if you miss them they are on my picasa album site: http://picasaweb.google.com/jjSqueals

Ta-ta for now.. wish us good weather for this week! We want to start going camping!